hello. this is bbc news. we'll be taking a look at tomorrow mornings papers in a moment — first the headlines. millions of people in england and wales are told to stay at home on the first day of tough, new coronavirus restrictions — as action is taken on a new variant of the virus the new variant is out of control, we need to bring it under control and this news about the new variant has been an incredibly difficult end to a frankly awful year. the health secretary labels crowded scenes at london stations last night as ‘irresponsible' — the transport secretary says extra police officers will be deployed to enforce the rules. france and germany become the latest countries to ban travel between the uk — as european officials prepare to discuss a coordinated travel response tomorrow morning.

long waits for some shoppers — as only essential retail can be open in england's tier 4 and in wales. hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. with me are writer and academic, maya goodfellow, and columnist for the article, ali miraj. thank ali miraj. you for coming back. the financial times says that the new coronavirus variant — that has hit the south east of england — will mean the tighter restrictions will stay in place for months. the i reports the health secretary's comments that the virus is ‘out of control‘ — as the number of daily recorded cases in the uk today reached

an all time high of nearly 36,000. the metro says the uk has been put into isolation by europe — after a number of european countries banned travel to the uk because of the new mutant strain. the guardian reports on fears about the effect on supply chains — after france halted freight transport from the uk. the daily telegraph says the supply of the covid vaccine could be disrupted by the problems — the department of health says it has contingency plans in place. the science editor of the times says the race is on to inject people with the vaccine at a faster rate than the virus is spreading. and the daily mail has a lovely picture — of twins kenna and lissa — who have recovered from covid after being born with the virus. so let's begin. let's begin with the daily mail. they were so well. indeed. following an interview by matt hancock this

morning. —— the worst know well. saying we would be living with this current situation for many months probably potentially until april and the fact is that this new mutant strain of the virus is expanding very rapidly. 35,000 cases in the last 2a hours which is a record. it is out of control to use his words. and i think there will be questions from tory mps. we know 55 of them voted against the new tier regime that came in a couple of weeks ago. we've had a couple of them already, mark harper has already written to be prime ministers saying he wants you to explain what the actual mechanic is to get out of this thing between lockdown and release and lockdown release and he wants to know that he wants a bull in parliament on these measures. sir charles walker is asking questions about when the government knew about this. the who has said that if our site about the strain in september

soi site about the strain in september so i think there are questions there for the government and i also think there's a question around communication. 0nly there's a question around communication. only this week we've had gavin williamson telling schools in three boroughs in london to keep their schools open and not close early before christmas. 0nly their schools open and not close early before christmas. only to then tell them that post christmas they bring are meant to be staying closed and the new year wall they administer lateral photos. i think we will be in the situation for some time. —— administer a lateralflow test. they are on a race to give the vaccine but we've only had 500,000 people potentially being done by this we can and i3 people potentially being done by this we can and 13 million vulnerable people to get done. a huge industrial scale task and we will really be coping with this for several months to come. you mention mark harper can release the covid—i9 recovery group a backbench conservative switch is fast overtaking the european research group as the most influential and important of the many backbench pressure groups the prime minister has to deal with. there is a

heart—warming image commendably photograph on the front of the twins who recovered from the coronavirus after being born with it. you wonder what sort of world they are being born into when you look at the headlines set next to it. yes. of course there are serious and necessary major concerns about this new variant. which it seems is potentially more infectious and that is incredibly concerning but wind of the things that i think there are questions that are being asked and this is been said about whether the government when the government knew about this strain but really what we should know when they knew about it, either way they acted too late yet again. they should have looked at the rising numbers of cases, and acted accordingly and instead what we have in the past week these cases we re we have in the past week these cases were rising, some of the poorest boroughs of london, their ordering schools who wanted to close to stay open and obviously we do want

schools or stay open but that has to be done safely and saw the government acting in this way i think it is really irresponsible and really just think it is really irresponsible and reallyjust adds to what has been a litany of failures and i don't just say this tojust litany of failures and i don't just say this to just say it because i think they really need going forward to learn from these mistakes. they need to increase statutory sick pay so need to increase statutory sick pay so people can afford to stay at home if they get ill and are not losing out in terms of income. they need to have two ensure that the test and tray system is properly functioning. —— a test entry system. overseeing these major failings that means people are not reached properly. that means stop putting money into the private sector input into local nhs capabilities which are already there to do the job. i think the variant is incredibly concerning these new measures are necessary but we need the government also to get their response in line instead of acting too late. they are behind us.

that is not only bad for the economy and people, it is also bad for public health. on the front of the ft. public health. on the front of the ft,i public health. on the front of the ft, i don't know whether they were this is a humourous or rather a kind of thunderous choice of photographs that the shop window display, presumably it was shut or honest last day of opening because of the new restrictions humbug it says. and the headline out of control. this is a real serious health crisis. nobody wa nts to a real serious health crisis. nobody wants to minimise that. but a real communications headache for this government because that was in a sense there had been a hope among conservatives that the clear out a downing street of some of the senior communications advises, the prime minister's chief adviser dominic cummings, the arrival of new people come all of the things would suggest there was a new approach to communication with the public. the last couple of the day suggest if thatis

last couple of the day suggest if that is there, it is not necessarily making that much of a difference yet. i think there are two issues. 0ne yet. i think there are two issues. one is communication and the other is really competent. i am afraid that no amount of chilean hyperbole is really going to cut at the moment. we have a serious crisis. another prime minister is by nature an optimistand another prime minister is by nature an optimist and that is fine and that optimism is what carried him to an 80 seat majority onlyjust over a year ago. but obviously he couldn't have foreseen this situation that he is in. it is a very difficult situation for all related. he is not alone in that. we should have been trying to learn the lessons of countries in east asia that had faced this this kind of crisis before it with sars and etc. rapid roll—out of a facemask, mandatory wearing a facemask, wrapping lockdowns as well, short sharp shock treatment and we have been slow in many cases to impose the restrictions. i do understand that

the prime minister has a very difficultjob. he has to manage the risks to light into public health with also the rest of the economy, we are facing an 11.3% contraction in the economy this year and we have all £394 billion. we have £2 trillion of public debt. we are facing an absolute nightmare ahead of us can the obr is saying that we have 4.9% of us can the obr is saying that we have 4. 9% unemployment of us can the obr is saying that we have 4.9% unemployment rate. 1.6 million set to rise to 2.5 million next year. the economic outlook is bleak so i do understand that the prime minister in this position has to balance all of these risk but i do think there is a question around competence of the government really in some of these decisions they have made. it is not easy. we all understand it but we are in the situation now and he did not want to cancel christmas. he sees himself much more as santa then screws but u nfortu nately much more as santa then screws but unfortunately that is what we are

now. i noticed a yorkshire post uses the phrase prime minister effectively cancelled christmas. not evenin effectively cancelled christmas. not even in the editorial. this casually in the front page coverage tomorrow. i suppose that gets into people's subconscious the idea that it was boris who cancelled christmas and that the virus. which perhaps boris johnson a little unfair. let's look at the sun. a picture of president macron. not a recent one. he is self isolating. it was not only had it but inadvertently gave it to some of this much gas. interesting headline. christmas applies chaos, french show no mercy. a kind of headline you might expect from the sun. laughter. this is really about that france has announced it will be suspending passenger and freight transport from the uk 40 hours from 11pm tonight. and what this incredibly concerning

and evidently this is in relation to this new variant and there's a lot of understandable concern across all of understandable concern across all of europe where there has been a numberof of europe where there has been a number of different travel restrictions of people leaving the uk and going to european countries but this is really specifically about thinking about that freight and that freight transport and what that means for supply in the supply chains and the concerns about goods moving in and out of the country and the hollier association have said this could be devastating and i think what they said is that they could still come in from france but it is more about whether that will happen deuced to whether people will wa nt happen deuced to whether people will want to make that decision due to the potential congestion. and sol think this is something that is a lot of people are looking at this and saying this could have been predicted in a lot of ways but this is cannot necessarily be disentangled from what a no—deal brexit would look like to what the governments contingency plans while they cannot prepare for this producing it and the variant being

theissue, producing it and the variant being the issue, this is i suppose related to that broader bricked to debate which is why we see this our headline. in the guardian combinations ban travel from debacle we talked about that with a couple of other papers but quite striking some of the quotes from the policy director. warning that there is already been a problem with the stockpiling in part caused by people's to worry about brexit. i heard a woman who runs a chocolate shopin heard a woman who runs a chocolate shop in london saying last week that they have been unable to source chocolate to make their own chocolate to make their own chocolate because all the big guys have bought up the supplies because they worry that if restriction came in with brexit they wouldn't be able to get them in or they would have to pay a tariff and it would be more expensive. so the smaller companies are struggling now according to rob mckenzie, there is a risk that perishable food will be affected and impacted both brexit stockpiling a

christmas rush and border closures, it really could have a dramatic effect. that is right. and i think there are two issues. one is obviously these travel restrictions set up in brockton today by a number of european countries, including ireland. in italy in the netherlands and germany. who arejust ireland. in italy in the netherlands and germany. who are just basically closing their borders to us. until we find out exactly what is happening with this latest strain of the virus. so there is that issue there. that is having a knock on impact as amaya alluded to on freight or traffic. —— maya. we know supermarkets keep very little stuck ina supermarkets keep very little stuck in a warehouse. most of it is on the shelf, just—in—time deliveries these days. you have to look at this against the backdrop of the ongoing negotiations that are taking place with respect to a deal or no deal. we just with respect to a deal or no deal. wejust don't with respect to a deal or no deal. we just don't know at the moment exactly what is happening. we know there are still wrangling over this whole level playing field issue

about this whole 750 billion covid—19 recovery from the eu is allowing summit strategic interest to tap into that the uk feel is unfair in the whole fishing issue and we know that regardless of whether there is a deal or no deal, still you will have a 4% of all goods moving into europe that will have to be checked for customs, because we will not be the customs union. thisjust because we will not be the customs union. this just compounds the issue, this latest here for a problem we are having in this new mutant strain. it adds to the whole issue with this backdrop of talks malcolm 11 days ago. brief class went on the times, your percent store on britain. you can read that asa store on britain. you can read that as a covid headline or a brexit headline. yes. a lot of people's mines, i suppose there will be these two things will be interlinked in a lot of ways and what we have seen nicola sturgeon say this evening is that she is calling him boris johnson to actually agree to try to

get to get an agreement to the leaving from the eu to extend the transition period because this new strain of coronavirus she says really should demand and command the full attention of the british government as opposed to also having these talks go alongside government as opposed to also having these talks go along side that is, so what she is calling for is this kind of extension and so there we see the two issues quite clearly come together and i think that what we are seeing now with the brexit discussions is the this deadline has been missed in terms of the european parliament, still potentially a way around that but as ally has said, these sticking points really being a concern for a lot of the people who are not supported by brexit, what they are seeing now is a lot of people are talking about these new travel restrictions whilst evidently doubt will not merit in the same way ano doubt will not merit in the same way a no deal scenario but a lot of people are saying we are beginning to see what this is a breaking of the relationship with the eu might look like if the government are not

able to get a deal which i